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An Overview on How to install Neon & LED Interior Car Lights

October 6, 2008

An Overview on How to install Neon & LED Interior Car Lights
 by: Antonio Gabellone

So you’ve got your LED or Neon interior car lights, but you’re now a bit confused

as to where all the car interior neon lights and wires go?” Well fear not, we’ll

show all the “in’s & out’s” of this type of installation and the easiest way of

doing it.

It’s a good idea to disconnect the battery before installing any car light

accessories. You can do this by disconnecting the negative battery cable and

placing it to one side of the battery where it won’t touch any part of the vehicles

body. It’s also wise to have your vehicles service manual handy for information

about the specifics of the electrical system on your vehicle.

For interior car lights, the best places to mount the LED or neon tubes are under

the dash on both sides just above where your feet go, but high enough so as not

to kick the tubes or damage them. There are also many other places you can fit

them and their location is only limited by your imagination.

To operate the lights manually, your going to need a switch located near you,

so you’ll need to buy a simple “2way toggle” switch (or use the switch that

may have came with your neon/led tube kit) from your nearest custom car

accessories store. This switch will be inserted into (in-line with) the main

power wire that supplies the kit with 12Volt power.

Choose if you want your interior car lights to turn on automatically when the

headlights are turned on, or if you want to control the lights separately with a

“toggle” switch.

If you want the neon or LED tubes to light up automatically when the headlights

are turned on, then you will need to find a wire under the dash near the

steering column. This wire you are looking for is normally Red or Yellow, and it’s

supplying the “headlight control switch” with 12V power - you’re going to have

to “tap” into this wire to light-up your neon lights when the headlights are

turned on.

If you want to be able to control the interior car lights separately from the

headlights, (best option) then there’s two ways you can do this…

1) The power wire can be connected directly to the Positive side of the car

battery, or…

2) It can be connected to any 12V power wire from under the dashboard.

If you choose to tap into a power wire from behind the dash to power your interior car lights you’ll also need to

buy a “Circuit Tester” from your nearest custom car accessory store - they only

cost about $10 dollars. To use this tester is simple, it looks like a pen with an

earth wire hanging out the top of it and a clamp attached to the end of the

wire, and it has a globe inside the middle of the pen, or on its end, which lights

up when you have found power somewhere.

To complete the interior car lighting circuit - you’ll now just need to

attach the earth wire coming out from the from your led or neon tubes to the

chassis of the vehicle. You can do this in the same way as described above for

the earth wire on the tester - anywhere where there is bare steel under the

dash is always a good earth connection for your interior car lights, even if you

find a screw under the dash that is screwed into bare steel and it is holding

another wire in place as an earth, you can use this too as an earth location.

The control panel earth wire will need to be securely screwed to the chassis of the vehicle

or to any “Earth wire” to complete the power circuit.

After your “power” & “earth” connections are complete, your car interior neon

lights should now work. If they appear dull and not real bright, then be sure to

check that you have made GOOD earth and POWER connections.

That’s it, you’re all done - now all you have to do is put any plastic panels back

into place that you may have removed, pack your tools up, and then head off to

show your friends what a great look you’ve just created on your car - Enjoy!

Please see our “More-In-depth” and step-by-step picture illustrated instructions

on How to install LED or Neon interior car lights onto your vehicle.

About The Author

Antonio Gabellone is the Owner/Author of All-Neon-Car-Lights.com, a great resource aimed at PlasmaGlow products with “life-time Warranties”. Copyright© All-Neon-Car-Lights.com 2005-2006 - Permission is granted to reprint this article provided the webmaster supplies a *LIVE* link to the authors website.

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